Word: error
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...Kennedy's defense, it can be argued that his declaration of independence was necessary. After all, not too many years earlier U.S. Catholic textbooks were stating unambiguously that "error has no rights," and that if Catholics ever became a majority in America, freedom of religion would be allowed to Protestants and Jews only out of political necessity. To many Catholics, nonetheless, Kennedy's argument that a President's religious views are "his own private affair" created what theologian James Burtchaell of Notre Dame University calls a "violent separation between morality and public policy...
...called probability theory, whose most obvious application is to gambling. The concepts are commonly introduced in statistic classes with reference to coin tosses and dice. It is hardly an exact science. Roughly one time out of 20 the typical pollster's finding will fall outside the stated margin of error. And even that assumes a flawless sample that will be exactly representative of the whole population and a 100% response rate -- conditions that are never met in the real world. Accurate polling also supposes that the questions are unambiguous, the interviewers perfectly interchangeable, and that the answers are freighted with...
...high-tech frontiers, the speedy service has its glitches. The IRS computers are programmed to accept virtually no discrepancies. Even a simple typographical or spacing error will prompt the system to reject the form. "The return has to be almost perfect before it goes through," says Richard Butler, a Chicago accountant. Tax giant H&R Block, which has hawked its service with a high-profile advertising campaign called "Rapid Refund," says its program is going smoothly. But smaller preparing firms have found the system to be a computerized nightmare. "We're experiencing a communication problem with software, and it costs...
Your editorial made an egregious error in concluding from admission statistics "that being the child of a graduate--a biological accident--improves one's chances of getting into Harvard by almost three times." The Crimson apparently thinks that the children of Harvard graduates are endowed with some mystical quality which makes their admission to Harvard a foregone conclusion...
...audiences out of their pregame misery many stadiums resort to canned versions of error-free performances by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Robert Merrill (called the "Star-Spangled Baritone" for his ubiquity on the anthem- singing circuit) and the Johnny Mann Singers. But a taped version takes away the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat inherent in every live performance, as well as the singers' inalienable right to get it wrong. Country-and-western star Johnny Paycheck, crooning before Atlanta Falcons fans, faked his way through several lines: "Oh, say can you see, it's cloudy at night/ What...